Kosta Andhra · Eastern Coastal Plains
Heroic and mythological narrative, and from the 1930s onward political argument — a three-person form that could hold a village for hours and was used deliberately as a medium before broadcasting reached the countryside.
Sung at: Village gatherings, campaigns, fairs.
Devotional verses sung street by street by a walking singer carrying a brass bowl on his head, who takes grain and not money and does not stop walking while singing.
Sung at: The month before Sankranti, at dawn.
Call-and-response between the handler and the decorated bull, with the animal cued to nod and bow at the right lines. It is a performance for one household's doorstep at a time.
Sung at: Sankranti.
Women's ceremonial songs sung at each stage of a wedding — oil and turmeric application, the bath, the procession — with teasing verses aimed at the other family that are protected by custom.
Sung at: Weddings, over several days.
Timing songs for rowing, hauling and pushing a boat off a beach, still audible at the smaller landings.
Sung at: Working the creeks, ferries and surf.
The set songs through which Satyabhama's character is built across a night — jealousy, pride, separation and reconciliation, each with its own musical setting.
Sung at: Kuchipudi performance.
Lullabies, many of them addressed to Krishna as an infant, and among the most widely retained pieces of the region's oral repertoire because they are still used for their original purpose.
Sung at: Domestic, at night.
The folk songs of Kosta Andhra — what they are about, who sings them and when. (7)